This blog deals with issues pertaining to natural dignity and worth that all humanity deserves under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It deals with topics pertinent to Christian living and faith.

“Our once great western Christian civilization is dying. If this matters to followers of Jesus Christ, then we must set aside our denominational differences and work together to strengthen the things that remain and reclaim what has been lost. Evangelicals and Catholics must stand together to re-establish that former Christian culture and moral consensus. We have the numbers and the organization but the question is this: Do we have the will to win this present spiritual battle for Jesus Christ against secularism? Will we prayerfully and cooperatively work toward a new Christian spiritual revival ― or will we choose to hunker down in our churches and denominationalisms and watch everything sink into the spiritual and moral abyss of a New Dark Age?” - Mark Davis Pickup

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Beethoven!

If you visit my home, you will notice a painting of Ludwig Von Beethoven on the wall of my livingroom. It has been there for many years to remind me of human capacity to rise above extreme adversity and find their destiny.

Beethoven was born into an abusive family, led by an ill-tempered, alcoholic, syphilitic father. As a young man (1792-1800) Ludwig van Beethoven became a celebrated piano virtuoso in Europe’s most musical city, Vienna.

Beethoven was a brilliant composer, but he was tormented by increasing deafness beginning at the age of 36. In his will of 1802, Beethoven articulated his love and dread of society in his state. He was only prevented from taking his own life by the thought of his music. We get a glimpse of his agony from a letter he wrote in Heilingenstadt on October of that year, at the apex of his grief over his increasing deafness:“ [T]hus do I take my farewell of thee – and indeed sadly – yes, that beloved hope – which I brought with me when I came here to be cured at least in a degree – I must wholly abandon, as the leave of Autumn fall and are withered so hope has been blighted, almost as I came – I go away – even the high courage – which often inspired me in the beautiful days – has disappeared – O Providence – grant me last but one day of pure joy – it is so long since real joy echoed in my heart – O when – O when --, O Divine One – shall I feel it again in the temple of nature or of men – Never? No – O that would be too hard.”[1]

What internal struggle and torments befell this deaf composer? We can only imagine!

Human destiny

What we know is that he emerged from the crisis of mounting deafness victorious. He resigned himself to the fact that he had to suffer but rose magnificently to his destiny as a composer. How could it be that in the Romantic Era marked with writers like Goethe and Wordsworth, by artists such as Delacroix and Turner, by composers like Wagner, Shubert and Liszt … that the standard bearer would be the handicapped and tragic Ludwig van Beethoven?

His crowning achievement was his 9th symphony. Most people are aware that he was profoundly deaf when he wrote it. Fewer people are aware that Beethoven was going deaf when he wrote his 1st symphony. When he started his 1st symphony in 1797, his deafness was detectable. By the time he finished it his deafness had become serious—so serious his physician sent him out of the country for therapy … to no avail. All 9 symphonies were written in partial or complete deafness! His mind was so muscular.

It’s doubtful he heard much of his 5th symphony, or his Pastoral Symphony #6. His beloved Moonlight Sonata was written between 1803-1804, in serious deafness. The same applies to his overtures, concertos, music for string quartets, His Fantasia for Piano-chorus and orchestra, his opera Fidelio. Creatures of Prometheus was written in silence.

If Ludwig van Beethoven lived today, would modern advocates of assisted suicide might assist him at his lowest point? How much poorer we would be without his vast contribution to the world’s treasury of music.

Human community

The human community must always endeavor to encourage all people to bring their contributions to the table, not abandon people to despair. We must lift people from sinking beneath the waves of circumstances.

We have an obligation to them and they have an obligation to the treasury of humanity's common good.

Mark Pickup

[1] Peter Latham, “Ludwig Van Beethoven” in The Music Masters: From the sixteenth Century to the Time of Beethoven, ed. A.L. Bacharach (London: Pelican Books, 1957), I, p.69